Canadian four-piece Iskra, make use of the black metal / crust punk template to issue one of the most savage statements against capitalism in recent times. The band’s third full length titled ‘Ruins’ was initially released back in 2015. It’s a good thing that Southern Lord Recordings are reissuing this album this year, as this album deserves more attention. The music is absolutely vicious in it’s intensity and rarely do Iskra let up during the course of the record. Right from the start, the abrasiveness is set to 11, making this an album not for the fainthearted.

The skies are dreary and winter shows it’s cold face. The season calls for some black metal. The dark chilly nights demand satanic, infernal black metal tunes and Vile Insignia delivers just this in their debut full length, titled ‘Bestial Invocation’. Hailing from Canada, this band share a few similarities with the likes of Blasphemy and Proclamation. Their overall sound however is quite different from the war metal bands. Firmly rooted in traditional black metal, they incorporate elements of death metal into the song writing to create a vicious and barbaric sound which contains some very solid riffs.

I’ve heard about Fuck the Facts a lot over the years, but I never truly gave them a listen. That is until I came across their upcoming full length on Noise Salvation, titled ‘Desire Will Rot’. After listen to this album, I am kicking myself for not having listened to any of their previous material. These Canadians manage to break a lot of stereotypes with this release. For one, the music in no way represents politness that the Canucks are most often associated with. Speaking of the music, it is hard hitting grindcore with the band showing some progressive and experimental tendencies.

When it comes to sick and twisted music, grindcore is my favourite go to genre. With all the grindcore that I listen to, I feel that most of them don’t have the stay power. When it comes to music that is always coked up on speed and drowned in anger, it is often the case that the tracks zip by, as the listener is still reeling from the impact. The reason I enjoy Nervous Impulse’s ‘Time to Panic’ is due to the fact that these Canadians know how to infect the listener’s mind with their music.The chaotic deathgrind that is on offer here has the staying power that most of the band’s peers lack.

Metal as a genre has always had a macho image attached to it. Though it may not be true with every sub genre out there, when metal as a whole is viewed from a common man’s perspective, there is certainly a certain degree of machismo attached to it. And then there are bands that go ahead and embrace this tough guy image. This trend saw a rise with the explosion of Pantera and the 90’s groove / thrash metal movement. And at that point in time, I did enjoy the occasional groove band, with its ‘mightier than thou’ attitude. Then as I grew up, my tastes expanded and groove / thrash metal bands have been pushed way back in my choice of music. So it is kinda nice to revisit the genre with Stab.Twist.Pull’s latest full length, ‘Lifeline’. Listening to this record reminds me of all the reasons I liked this sub genre of metal, while also bringing to mind why I moved on.